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winkingstar
Registered User
(4/2/04 9:08 pm)
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Swarthmore College Fairy Tales Symposium Report
Transformations: Fairy Tales Then and Now
Fairy Tales Symposium @ Swarthmore College
Friday April 2 & Saturday April 3 2004
http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/sforres1/FTSymposium.html
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Greetings,
I am attending this symposium for a class (though, of course, I would have gone anyway!) and thought I'd start this thread to tell you all about it. I think someone else from this board is attending, too, so feel free to help me out (sorry I don't remember who you are).
So today was just an opening reception for the symposium at the Swarthmore College Library. They had some displays of fairy tales illustrations, both modern and some examples from the library's treasury. Most of the modern work was by Veronique Tadjo, Paul O. Zelinski, and Judith Byron Schachner -- all three of whom were there, very cool! (Jack Zipes was there, too, and he will be giving a talk tomorrow.) The illustrations from the treasury were of Grimms' collections and Arabian Nights collections.
It was very informal and after a librarian introduced the authors,
everyone just got to mingle. So I (and three other people) got to
mingle with Jack Zipes for a while. This was VERY exciting for me.
Actually, this whole symposium is because there's several "big names"
coming. Anyway, Zipes talked about how he got into fairy tales,
the art of storytelling, and how fairy tales are originally adult
literature and hence the best fairy tale movies are aimed more at
adults. It was really cool to talk with him, and before I left,
I bought one of his books and had him sign it. (I left the library
smiling giddily and everyone probably thought I was insane but whatever...)
So the opening reception was totally worth missing dinner for (transportation complications... I got food eventually). And I can't wait for tomorrow. I will post my notes for Saturday when I have time to type them up (hopefully soon).
Laters,
~winkingstar
Edited by: winkingstar at: 4/3/04 8:14 pm
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Gregor9
Registered User
(4/7/04 6:54 am)
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Re: Swarthmore College Fairy Tales Symposium Report
I'll throw in my own perspective on the conference, which was indeed quite wonderful.
This past weekend, (April 3rd), I attended a conference on fairy tales at Swarthmore College, “Transformations: Fairy Tales Then and Now”.
The guests included authors Jack Zipes, Maria Tatar, Véronique Tadjo, and Donna Jo Napoli, illustrator Paul O. Zelinski, and academics Dorothy Hurley and Lewis Seifert.
The program was broken into three parts: a symposium of papers; a discussion on aspects of writing or adapting fairy tales; and readings.
Jack Zipes spoke about research he’s doing into Sicilian folktales, and the rich vein of material he’s tapped as a result. While some of the tales were included by Italo Calvino in his Italian Folktales, Calvino like the Brothers Grimm had revised them to attune them more to his voice. Zipes is now working on a multiple volume project to bring these into light as close to the originals as possible. He also proved to be a riveting storyteller.
Maria Tatar discussed how cultural imperatives had altered fairy tales and our relationship to them over the past two centuries, and referenced the aspects of them she termed “Turkish delight” (after that confection in “The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe”).
Dorothy Hurley showed through analysis how Disney has systematically defined white characters as good and characters of color as evil. So effective is this brainwash, that small girls of color who were given the task of portraying fairy tale princesses invariably depicted them as white, blue-eyed, and blonde--even when the girls said that in their heads they turned the princess into themselves, into a girl of color.
Donna Jo Napoli talked about how she adapts fairy tale material for her novels--specifically that she begins with character, that her stories all evolve from the character. She stressed the importance of what she called “primary and secondary research.”
And Paul Zelinsky, using slides, showed us the evolution of his Rapunzel book--how he sought medieval works of art as starting points for numerous of the illustrations; how he moved the story to Italy because he wanted to depict an Italian campanilé as his tower; and how he used renaissance methods of building up layers of paint to give his Rapunzel artwork the translucency of Renaissance art.
One can only hope Swarthmore College is able to repeat this conference from time to time.
An exhibition of related fairy tale art is up until the end of April on campus.
Gregory Frost
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winkingstar
Registered User
(4/8/04 5:25 pm)
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Re: Swarthmore College Fairy Tales Symposium Report
I typed up half of my notes so far. I took 13 pages of notes while there! So here is Part I of my notes, featuring the scholarly research presentations of Jack Zipes, Maria Tatar, Lewis Seifert, Dorothy Hurley, and some questions from the audience. Part II of my notes will probably be finished later this weekend. Enjoy!
~winkingstar
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